


Once Upon a Time

by Azure (Fancy_Ravenclaw)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Cinderella - Freeform, M/M, phanfichallenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 20:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15178688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fancy_Ravenclaw/pseuds/Azure
Summary: A retelling of Cinderella; an unapologetic fairytale.





	Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Phandom Writing Challenge 1: the Anti-Trope Challenge. Beta’d by the amazing [Jasmine](http://twitter.com/fiveby_five).

Dan barely remembered his mother. She had passed away when Dan was barely six years old, and his father had remarried so quickly that he had completely grown into his new situation. His stepmother brought two children with her: a son and a daughter. Although Dan had tried to befriend them at first, he had soon retired his efforts when he realised that they were not at all interested in being nice to their new, young stepbrother. It had taken years for him to understand why they were so hellbent on picking on him: they were jealous. Jealous of his curls and his dimples and his laugh that made everyone around him smile with him. And it wasn’t just Mark and Erica, his stepmother seemed jealous too. Every other day she came home with presents for everyone but Dan, dressing her children in expensive clothes and putting shiny bracelets around their wrists, while leaving Dan with their hand-me-downs. 

Dan’s father died, four years after his remarriage. Dan abruptly gave up complaining about the situation. Now that the only person who seemed to care about him was gone, he was forced to resign his campaign. He grew quieter with every passing year, simply waiting it out until he would be old enough to move far away and start anew for himself.

One day, when Dan was sixteen, spending his days doing chores and being silent, Erika came dancing into their main room. She was holding a beige envelope, and from the corner of his eye Dan could see the red royal mark, stamped on the front. “Mum, Mark, come in here!” She tossed the envelope on their futon and waved a letter at her family. “The prince is looking for a partner. He is holding a royal dance for the most beautiful people in the country to choose from. And we’ve got an invitation.”

“Who is ‘we’?” Mark asked.

Erika waved her hand dismissively, “You and me, of course.”

Dan, who had been paying close attention from the corner of the room before, sighed and returned his attention to the ironing board. 

The peace and quiet returned as his stepmother and stepsiblings left to go buy outfits in town. They left the letter on the table, unattended, and Dan couldn’t contain his curiosity. After a quick glance out the window to make sure he really was alone he picked up the piece of paper and read it. At the bottom, in chic and loopy handwriting, were the names of Mark, Erica, and himself. He was on the list. He stood frozen in place for a moment as he thought over his options. Of which there weren’t many, admittedly. 

When his family came home he was immediately set to work, sewing sleeves just a bit tighter to show off Mark’s biceps, embroidering flowers onto Erika’s dress, and attaching feathers to his stepmother’s hat. And as they were all sat in the main room of the house, Dan did something he hadn’t done in a very long time: he spoke up. “I was invited too.” It was quiet, but not inaudible. Three pairs of eyes focused on him, confirmation that they had all heard him loud and clear.

“Excuse me?” His stepmother raised her eyebrows almost mockingly. 

“My name. It’s on the invitation.”

Erica rolled her eyes, “Probably a mistake. Focus on your sewing, it’s crooked over there.”

“They wouldn’t let you in. Could you imagine? You look like a scarecrow with a bird’s nest on your head.”

They all laughed. A loud cackling that filled Dan’s ears, ensuring he would shut up and never bring it up again. He sewed in silence.

\--

On the day of the ball the household was up in arms from the moment they woke up. Dan was busy making last minute amendments to clothes, while Mark and Erika perfected their own and each other’s hairdos and makeup. Their mother was circling around them, perfecting her children’s looks, before going back to her own styling. She insisted on going to ‘make sure all went well’, but Dan knew she secretly hoped the prince’s eye would fall on her. As if an eighteen-year old royal would fall for an angry-looking middle-aged woman. He said nothing.

When they all got in the horse-drawn carriage, Dan was left alone in the cold house. The street was deserted and the other houses around them dark. Everyone was at the ball tonight. Dan retreated to the kitchen, where he knelt next to the small fireplace, crying as he tried to warm himself up. He was trembling, holding his hands over the small flames of a fire no bigger than his hand. Salty tears streaked his cheeks and dropped down into the ashes, shaping into grey steam as they made contact. Suddenly, the tiny wafts of steam started mingling, forming an ever-growing cloud that rose above the fireplace and made Dan fall back onto his butt, crawling away. The cloud started sparkling, becoming a shiny silver rather than grey, and eventually mixing in all the colours of the rainbow until it disappeared and a small old woman appeared in its place.

Dan was dumbfounded, staring with open mouth at the lady with her soft white hair tied back in a bun and her wrinkly but open face. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.” She said, approaching carefully, “I am a fairy and I will make sure you can go to the ball. We’re short on time, so quickly, go to the basement and catch four mice. Then meet me in the garden.”

After being used to following commands pretty much all his life even in his baffled state Dan managed to get to his feet and obey the request. He ran down to the basement and collected four mice in the pockets of his apron.

When he brought them to the woman in the garden, she took them and gave his next order, “Find me two lizards and pick a pumpkin.”

Again, Dan went off to follow the instructions. Catching lizards in a garden proved much harder than catching mice in an enclosed basement, but he still managed, holding the slippery animals tightly as he hurried back to the fairy woman. “Excellent.” She exclaimed, taking these from him, too.

She put all the items on the ground, where for some reason they all stayed in place and made no attempt to escape. With a wave of a thin wooden stick the pumpkin and mice grew first, shaping into a beautiful white carriage and four grey horses with glittering white manes. Dan couldn’t believe his eyes, stepping closer to touch on of the horses, just to make sure it was real.

While he stood there and examined the animals, the fairy waved her wand over the lizards, and out grew two footmen dressed in chic red velvet dress coats and high white boots. They curtsied to Dan, a boy in shabby clothes with dust in his hair from retrieving boxes of jewellery from the attic that morning.

“There, all ready to take you to the best night of your life.” The lady said contently.

“But I can’t go looking like this. They would kick me out.” 

“Gosh, I almost forgot. How silly of me.” She stepped closer, and gently tapped his forehead with the wand, sending cool shivers up his spine. When he looked down at himself, he saw a beautiful golden suit, stitched with silver thread, and a pair of shimmering grey dress shoes on his feet. 

“It’s beautiful.” He exclaimed breathlessly. 

“Now go, and have an amazing evening.” The fairy said, “But remember that you need to be out of the palace by midnight, as my magic loses its power then and all will return to how it was before.”

“I can’t thank you enough for this.” Dan said.

“You don’t need to. Now go.” With a tap of the wand to her own forehead, the lady disappeared. 

One of the footmen opened the door of the carriage and Dan stepped inside, sitting down onto the soft red futon.

The palace lit up brightly in the distance and as they approached Dan could make out the candles and lights decorating the imposing building. Outside, servants were taking coats and directing carriages. They curtsied for Dan as he entered through the gates into the ballroom. 

The moment his feet touched the wooden floor the orchestra on stage stopped playing and the people stopped dancing. All eyes turned to the new entrant and his radiating looks. The crowd split, forming a path to Prince Philip who was already making his way over.

“May I have this dance?” He offered Dan his hand, and Dan gracefully accepted.

The prince’s first dance was for Dan. So was his second. And his third.

The people around them were murmuring to each other, speculating about the identity of this beautiful boy who had captured the full attention of their royal. In a corner of the room were Mark, Erica and their mother, pouting and complaining. “He should give others a chance. This is so unfair.”

But Dan and Philip had no eye for anyone else. They danced all night and Dan had never felt happier, spinning around light as a feather in the prince’s arms thinking of nothing but him.

Until the clock struck twelve. Dan was roughly awakened from his haze and pulled away from Philip. “I have to go.” He said, and turned around. On the seventh beat of the clock he was out of the palace, tripping down the stairs and losing a shoe along the way. He had no time to come back for it, disappearing into the night. 

Prince Philip was left by the gates. “I don’t even know your name!” He shouted into the darkness. Just as he was about to give up and go back inside he noticed the shoe on one of the steps in front of him. He quickly made his way down and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. 

As he ran home, Dan’s clothes changed back into his cotton trousers and shirt, but his one shoe remained the same. He took it off and stuffed it in the pocket of his apron. He reached home barefoot and cold, going straight to the kitchen where he curled up in spot by the fireplace and cried himself to sleep.

\--

Mark, Erica, and their mother woke Dan up with their shouting upon returning to the house, but he didn’t stir, pretending to still be asleep. He could hear them complaining in the next room about how if Dan had just ironed Erica’s dress better or made the buttons on Mark’s suit shinier, the prince would have chosen one of them. Their mother was trying her best to console them, “He still might choose one of you. After all, that mysterious prince disappeared. Who knows if he’ll come back.”

\--

Prince Philip, however, did not seem keen to let it go. The day after the ball the country was plastered with posters, advocating that whoever fit the Silver Shoe, Philip would marry. In an attempt to stay positive Erica proclaimed, “It says ‘whoever’ and doesn’t specify a gender. If it fits me, he’ll have to marry me.”

They waited impatiently for the royal servants to reach their house and offer them the shoe to try on. Dan watched from behind the ironing board as his stepsiblings eagerly grabbed the shoe from a servant’s hands and fought over who could try it on first.

Erica won, sitting down on the futon and shoving her foot into the dress shoe. It was too big, falling off her the moment she lifted her leg. “Wait, let me try again.” She begged as the servant handed the shoe to Mark.

“It clearly does not fit, miss.” 

Mark’s foot was too big. He couldn’t even get his heel in there no matter how much he struggled.

“That’s quite enough, sir. You might break it with this aggression.”

The servants turned to Dan, but his stepmother intervened, “He’s just the help. He’s nobody.”

“The prince wants everyone to try it on. That includes him.” He insisted.

Dan avoided everyone’s gazes as he took the shoe and put it on. It fit perfectly, of course. The moment the servants realised this, they all took a knee. “Sir.”

“He didn’t even go to the ball.” Erica shouted. She was pulling on her hair in pure frustration. 

“I can’t afford a wedding suit,” Dan said softly, but I do have a pair of shoes.” He pulled the matching silver shoe out of the pocket of his apron and put it on.

“The prince’s fiancé has been found.” They guided him outside, leaving Erica, Mark, and their mother dumbfounded. Erica was screaming something as Dan entered the royal purple carriage, but no one was listening anymore.

That same day Philip bought his groom-to-be a satin suit with a line of diamonds on either shoulder. 

The next day, Dan married his prince.


End file.
